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3.11/5 rDev -8%look: 4 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3

On tap at the Pizza Plant on Main,poured from the tap kind of a nutty brown color with good clarity a thinner but tight off white head atop.A little to much raspberry in the nose not any porter roastiness and just a hint of dark chocolate mainly just sweet and I mean real sweet fruitiness.That sweetness translates on to the palate in a big way starting out with that raspberry and chocolate really hitting home with not enough of a dryness to balance it out only a hint of earth in the finish but it never comes close to standing up to the near cloying sweetness.I t was a one and done for me to much fruit and like others have noted not enough porter,I love ST but this well it could be better in alot of ways this is something my wife would enjoy though.

Appearance: It has a deep brown amber color with deep reddish highlights and a big light tan head that fades to a thin cap on top. Very little to no lacing is left on the glass as it slides down the sides of the glass.

Smell: The aroma has a sweet berry scent. There is a strong raspberry aroma along with loganberry and other wild berries. Also there is a light roasted malty note under the berry aromas and an even lighter hint of hops in the background.

Taste/Mouth feel: Its flavor has a big shot of raspberry syrup over a milk chocolaty cake dough malt base. The raspberry sweetness slides to the finish on a slick palate, where it is met by light leafy/herbal hops. The finish has a light bitterness from the hops and a slight tartness from the raspberry. The body is medium to full with soft carbonation.

Notes: This is defiantly on the sweet side and unbalanced for a porter. It is quite drinkable and I like it but it seems to be more of a fruit beer than a porter.

Im not typically into fruit beers but I am a huge Southern Tier fan so I decided to give this one a shot. Pours a a very dark amber color with a small off-white head that sticks around for a bit. Good lacing. Smells predominantly of sweet raspberries dipped in chocolate. Flavor is of more raspberries and chocolate notes. Just a touch of hop bitterness in the finish. Mouthfeel and body is pretty thin and I expectedt a bit more depth in the flavor. Decent carbonation and smooth. This is a fair beer. Southern Tier, I still love you.

One snif and It was like a bowl of capt'n crunch raspberries. Totally over the top on the berries. Dude, where is the beer? If there was anything else to notice here, I missed it. I kept sniffing to see if there was anything else going on here and the only other thing I could think of is raspberry seltzer water. You know, kinda tickly to your nose.

I sipped it, hoping that might help, FAIL. It was a flavour of some maltyness and yeastyness and rotten fruit. The aftertaste, which I really care about, by the way, was dry and so off I couldn't wait till my nachos came. I hoped that the nachos would help this beer.

Wrong again. I ate some nachos and then sipped some beer and this time it tasted like cough syrup! This is why beer and food like items should never mix. All of that said, if you are a fruity beverage person, you might just like this one.

Drinkability: Here this is listed as a porter. It most likely is a straight 2.5 porter. There are way better options--no questions--way better. If you classify this as a fruit beer which I think it is..It should be a straight 4.0...This is very raspberry, but missing some beer taste...I enjoyed the beer and will have it again in the summer--just not if I am looking for a porter.

The smell is certainly raspberry-dominated, with a little bit of dark chocolate. Maybe a little bit of dark malts in the back, but only just.

The taste starts off all raspberry, but quickly transitions to a slightly burnt bitterness. Not bad; not very complex, however.

Mouthfeel is far too thin to be classified as a porter in my book.

Kudos to Southern Tier for experimenting. Certainly a brew that was well worth a try. Not my favorite, and I wont seek it out again, but enjoyable nevertheless. With a bit of tweaking, this one could be a real winner.

Appears a dark ruby brown hue no dark jet black with highlights here this is pale by porter standards, I'm thinking a water chaser will be necessary for this one. Light tan beige head forms with dimples dwindles relatively quick and thin scant lacing forms sporadically around my ST/BC pint much like the AC/DC symbol with a lightning bolt. Aroma seeds and tart sweet raspberry juice phenols arise mild roasty character with some dark chocolate there no strong coffee edge or tame herbal hops just sticky sweet raspberry sweetness arises. Flavor a blend of chocolate covered raspberry meant for dessert and the holidays guessing from the Pointsettas blended with the raspberries on the label. Some porterish content here but for the most part I can't get past the sticky sweet raspberry flow. With each sip some herbal hops to begin to arise so I guess they didn't leave that dimension out of the equation. A touch of dry dark chocolate with roasty mild light coffee filter remains floating in raspberry jammed water. Mouthfeel is thin for any porter and really thin for a Southern Tier product what the hell is going on with ST's raspberry infatuation I'm guessing it's the sales of the Raspberry Wheat this past summer. Sturdy carbonation with a spritzy thin body as stated above it works quite well raspberry doesn't stick to the palate indefinitely. Drinkability is okay that's about all I have to say I'm not sold on this and I don't condone great brewers to run for the fruit but ST has done okay with their efforts, I could drink a couple of these.

Wow! If Leinenkugels(sorry fans) got together with Frankenberry and Trix, this would be the ugly baby. The second you pop the cap, it smells like tou just opened a bag of Twizzlers. Way too much artificial raspberry odor. Looks like a porter, pours like a porter, but do not expect a porter from this pour. The odor/taste of plastic raspberries immediately kills any hope of enjoying a good porter. Very watery, which I was not expecting. Almost a drain pour, but as I do respect beer, I powered through it. Just glad I didn't spring for the $9 bomber of their Creme Brulee. May have went into Diabetic Shock.Recommend this for the wine cooler crowd, or the select few who may look foward to cracking open a Leinenkugel's Sunset wheat after a hard day.

I was hoping for maybe a dessert wine with some bitterness to balance a light, fruity sweetness, but this beer really doesn't do it for me.

There's a candy-like raspberry scent on pouring the Raspberry Porter. And as it turns out, this one's not a creamy, thick kind of porter. It's thinner-bodied, more deep brown with a sparse head that gathers at the sides of the glass.

The flavor isn't particularly porter-like either. Like the look of the beer, the flavor seems thin. Luckily, it's not terribly sweet, either, but the raspberry aspect of the beer leaves an ascorbic acid-style aftertaste in my mouth. There's no bite or rich, malty mouthfeel, either.

This was the seasonal ale selection in my Southern Tier variety pack, and it's making me sad, so I'm hoping I like the other beers in the package a bit more.

A- Clear Amber brown with a small filmy head. No lacing.S- Nice fresh raspberries with a light hint of chocolate malt.T- Light sweet raspberries with a touch of roasted chocolate malt, very faint.M- Light and sweet. fruity up front with a mild dry malt finish.

Overall- The lightest porter, I think, I've ever had. Not much more than raspberry going on here.

Grabbed as part of a mixed sixer, poured into a pint glass. Dark, reddish-brown body with a finger of light tan head that quickly fades leaving some spotty lacing. The nose is dominated by strong raspberry scents, with some chocolate notes sneaking through as well. Unlike the strong berry aromas, it was somewhat muted in the taste, which was unexpected. I get much more chocolate and some roasted malts, than the raspberry - its there, but no where near as dominant as in the nose. I find this porter a bit thin, and lighter bodied for the style, but had a nice carbonation level to it. It is fairly sweet too, so I wouldn't wanna drink more than one in a sitting.

Appearance: Decent head and lacing, but the color looks more like an amber than a porter, as it's not even close to opaque, and lighter than possibly any porter I've seen? Too much raspberry and not enough darkness?

Smell: Raspberries, chocolate, vanilla, slight coffee, malt sweetness. Not bad at all. Not sure if real raspberries are used, but if not, the malt and darker flavors are masking any syrupy nature to the brew.

Taste: Nice balance of darker, porter, chocolate flavors, and the raspberry flavors that are both sweet and aromatic. But not too sweet, as the porter, though kind of light in that sense, seems to be dominant, though the two still mesh pretty well here.

Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied it seems, or maybe it's the carbonation, or lack, that seems to contribute to that. Otherwise than being a bit slick in that sense, it's alright overall.

Drinkability: I was surprised by the low ratings here. I'm not a big fruit beer guy myself, but I like the dessert-like nature of this brew, with darker flavors of the porter and the raspberry sweetness. Could be better of course, and I wouldn't want to have more than maybe two in a session, but I actually liked this better than some of their touted bigger beers, some of which didn't do it for me.

Southern Tier's Raspberry Porter pours a clear, very deep chestnut brown colored body beneath a short head of frothy tan foam. The head retention is fair, and it maintains a silky surface covering throughout most of the glass. Initially it also leaves some very nice lacing about the glass, although that fades along with the head.

The nose is all raspberry, sweet and tart and juicy. Only a little bit of cocoaish malt sneaks in from behind.

The flavor offers a combination of mild raspberry and gently chocolatey malt. The fruit appears upfront, and the chocolate comes in towards the swallow, and then lingers in the gentle finish. It's soft and readily accessible with a mild bitter note of support and only hints of grassy and leafy hops.

It's interesting, but it's not very porter-like. The fruitiness is really nice. It seems to be from real fruit. And I like the way that the two main flavors trade back and forth; and when one isn't accented (across the middle for example) they mesh together really well. Nicely done.

A - Pours a dark brown with medium head. Quite a bit of lacing in the glass.

S - How many times can you say Raspberry? Its dominant. There are other subtle scents in there, some spice, a little coffee, but raspberry is so dominant.

T - Once again, raspberry. It is prevalent, but not in a bad way as you might expect. It marries well with the malt of the beer. Very palatable.

M - Not as carbonated as I'd have expected. I thought this would be heavier on the carbonation. I expected this to be a mix of Porter and Rasperry Wheat, the density of the beer is there, but the carbonation is much less.

D - Great. It is a good mix of a porter and fruit beer. I am not a fruit beer fan, but this is among the better ones.

Pours a cola color w/ a head disappears quickly. There is definately a strong smell of raspberries. It tastes like it smells -- very strongly of raspberries. There's a faint hint of chocolate and the flavors blend well. Doesn't taste artificial, but doesn't taste much like a porter, either. Very light, almost like an unsweetened soda. The beer is definitely drinkable, but not something I'd seek out when wanting a beer. Nailed the raspberry, missed the porter.

Poured a light cola colored brown with some light ruby highlights, with a thin yet sticky tan had. Much lighter in color than most porters.

The smell is dominated by raspberries with just a hint of dark malt sneaking through.

Has a nice raspberry flavor with out being overly sweet. The porter flavors are decent with a bit of dark malts and some coffee and chocolate coming through, but just way to muted with the raspberry flavors dominating a bit to much.

The mouthfeel is a bit light with a bit of creaminess.

Not bad its just to bad the porter part of the beer wasn't a bit bigger to balance out better with the raspberry part.

Appearance - Not as dark as most porters I've had.Smell - RASPBERRY! BAM!Taste - Raspberry and very little roasted flavor.Mouthfeel - Very light body (for a porter) and not a good finish in my opinion.Drinkability - Not very, I dumped it because I just couldn't deal with it.Overall - Could have been a lot better and frankly I'm disappointed because I love every other ST offering I've had the pleasure of drinking. Could use some chocolate flavor to it possibly and that may help it some, but it just lacked in so many areas, I don't think it can be saved. Back to the drawing board?

Southern Tier rarely fails to impress. Easy to say they are my favorite American brewery.

12 oz. bottle poured into a snifter. Color is deep mahogany with a minimal white head that quickly dissipates.

Smells of tart raspberry (duh). Sips a very agreeable raspberry flavor, lacking the sweetness you might expect to accompany a "fruity" beer. Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, the fruit flavor sticks with you until you swallow, leaving a very pleasant aftertaste.

While the body comes off perhaps on the thinner side of the porter spectrum, this certainly isn't a light beer. The 5 I've given for drinkability derives in part from the "lightness" of this dark-hued brew.

Definitely my kind of fruit beer. None of the artificial sweetness you get in a Raspberry UFO or a Sea Dog (to name only a few), but a very full and satisfying "real" raspberry through and through. While the porter [flavor] aspects of this beer are subtle, they nicely prop up the deliciousness of the fruit, keeping the whole experience mellow. I find it easy to put back 3 or 4 of these in one sitting without having to anticipate a sugar-induced hangover.

No idea what the ABV is but I imagine it can't be excessively high. If it's much above 5%, it's masked very well.

A big treat that only comes round once a year and tends to fly off the shelf. Grab it if you see it.